Me get very confused sometimes

Today’s blog is going to be about breaking the rules and making up your own.

I’ve never been a fan of playing by the rules of the English language when it comes to writing, because I think there are too many of them. (No,  the title of the this blog is not proper grammar)..

Longtime friends of mine may remember when our high school English teacher assigned us a formal paper, and when it came time to produce an outline, I pulled a piece of paper out of my pocket with hand-scribbled notes on it. I don’t really like outlines; they are too constricting and, in my opinion tend to stifle the writing process.

That being said, there are certain rules of grammar that simply need to be followed, but I say make up your own rules about how you remember them.

Today, let’s talk about the use of “I” and “me” when speaking or writing. It’s usually confused, as in when someone writes “Me and George went to the park today.”

No.

Look, there are lots of online dictionaries that will talk about the nuances of the two words, and the word “I” being a nominative or predicate pronoun, etc. I’m already bored and with my squirrel-like attention, you’ve lost me already.

I’ll go back to my previous advice: Write to me as if you were speaking to me.

When in doubt about the above sentence regarding adventures at the park, think of the word “and” as a separator and remove it briefly. It’s a conjunction, and by nature it connects two words.

Now you have two sentences; Try speaking each one out loud. You would not say “Me” went to the park today.” So, the proper pronoun is “I.”

“George and I went to the park today.” Proper in written and spoken form.

“Me” is used when someone does something to you or for you. “Mom took George and I to the park” would not be appropriate, because Mom would not take “I” to the park.

Remember, separate the two thoughts when in doubt. Now, me is going to get to work.